THE ART OF INDIVIDUATION PRESENTS 

The Mirror and the Palette Gallery

The following artworks were submitted by students of The Centre for Applied Jungian Studies' 2025 course, The Art of Individuation: The Mirror and the Palette. 

Our sincere thanks to the following artists for allowing us to display their artworks.  


Please note that the artworks in this gallery are copyrighted and may not be downloaded or reproduced. They are the sole property of the respective artists. 

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Joanne Della Penta

Abstract
Medium - Charcoal, Ink 20 x16" 

Artist's Statement - I am an art psychoanalyst exploring the field of emotional spaces held in my work.
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Joanna Durney

Self Portrait in Bathroom Mirror

Abstract
Artist's Statement - This portrait was painted over a previously completed abstract painting, which I incorporated into the final composition. It is about ways of seeing, imagination vs reality, and the blurring between them. I am holding a phone in my hands, a tool for the modern day artist that helps me see, record and edit images. In the background at the top is a form that looks like a giant eye - this could represent the inner eye or artist's eye.

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Anne Graaff

Abstract
Medium: oil pastel on coloured paper 160g, 24 by 32cm

Artist's Statement: I was observing the light, the play of tones across my face. I enjoyed working on a coloured paper which provided a mid-tone. A mood of reverie, I was after a little bit of glitter, internal sparkle, something softly expressionist.

                                              Self Portrait

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Ellen Sim

Dream Self Portrait
Expressionistic Self Portrait
Self Portrait Chance
Selfie
Abstract
Dream Self-portrait: This is oil on canvas. I have a recurring nightmare in which my father calls me on the phone. He is dead, and he calls me from beyond but he doesn't know where he is or that he is dead. I'm frightened to talk to him and don't know what to say. I'm looking at the phone with trepidation as I know his sad, alone, confused voice will be on the other end. I opted to place my face in a forest, as Cyril Coetzee told us that a forest can often symbolize our inner lives.

The Expressionistic Self-portrait: This is oil on canvas board. My favourite art movement is the post-impressionists. The wild colours excite me. The world is weird, it's exciting, it's a little off-kilter. I chose the wild colours out of a love of this period. I love the zany colours in this portrait. I painted it from life in one sitting, and captured what I saw: a severe gaze and jowly cheeks.

Self-portrait Chance: This is multimedia on paper. As a nod to how much chance there is to everything in life, I indulged in some random mark-making on paper. I then searched for the face in the chaos and added paint to complete it once I had found it. Panic, angst, and the horror of everything speak to me in this work. And a little comedy too.

Selfie: This is pencil on paper. This was my first attempt from life. I was concentrating and you can see it on my face. I really enjoyed drawing it.
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Ghost I

Catherine Stout

Abstract
Materials - Pencil, Ink, Watercolor, handmade paper, oil pastel on Watercolor paper.  

Artist’s Statement - An unanticipated outcome! Belle was a rescued mare with whom I worked.  Her body was branded with a number (47); her hide bore scars.  She died within two months after I started to work with her. That was 10 years ago. She is with me still.  
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Maria Phillips

Nancy Charest

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Ellen Taylor

Abstract
Medium - Acrylic on canvas

Artist's Statement - I made this self-portrait while taking the Mirror and the Palette through The Centre for Applied Jungian Studies. I have done many self-portraits over the years and was very inspired by the lectures of Jennifer Higgie to see that I was in good company using myself to study the human being through paint. 

Self Portrait #100

Self Portrait Chance
Dream Self Portrait
Expressionistic Self Portrait
Selfie

Gaelle B.

Artist Statement
Links
 I am a French painter and writer based in London. Amidst life’s beauty, mystery, brutality I often wonder : what is this telling me, telling us?

It often starts with a situation that moves me and seems to want to say something bigger. It could be a smile, a posture, a tree, a bird, two lovers. Or a thunder, a beggar, a dried up river, a lonely soul… It could be anything. Then colours. Then words. Or vice versa. They are the ones revealing it.

Molly A. Geissman

RUN

Abstract
Medium - 24 X 36" mixed media (acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, oil pastel, china marker and Gideon bible page aka ephemera on canvas board)

Artist's Statement - This piece is a part of a body of self pieces done over April and May 2025 during The Mirror and The Palette
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Justine Gillan

Abstract
Medium - Oil on canvas 40 x 50 cms
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Acadia Geranium de La Paz

Patrice Vecchione

Artist Statement
Materials
Assemblage comprised of a Caged Santos Doll clothed in found, purchased and created items—hand-painted crown, wig, lace slip, blouse, shawl, wallet, necklace, red silk skirt, and on her arm her guardian hummingbird. Caged Santos Dolls were originally created for home altars, originating in the 17th and 18th centuries. I’ve wanted one for a long time and found this one on eBay; she’s made of wood and is quite unlike any others I’ve seen. Beneath her skirt, instead of legs is her cage—slats of wood strips that extend from her waist to the width of the base.  
I’m a professional writer and a non-professional artist who makes paper and textile collages and various types of hand-stitched work including the birds behind the doll, part of a show called Imagination Migration. My most recent book is My Shouting, Shattered, Whispering Voice: A Guide to Writing Poetry & Speaking Your Truth and the anthology Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience. New essays can be found in the Monterey Herald, Edible Monterey Bay and Catamaran Literary Reader, among other California and US publications. Due to my despair of US Politics, I have found writing, art-making and teaching more valuable than ever.
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Sonia McNally

Curiosity of Eve - oil on canvas 50cm x 40.5cm
I am the Moon - watercolour on canvas 80cm x 50cm
She with Her Head in the Mountains - graphite and watercolour on paper 35cm x 50 cm
Tread with Care - charcoal on paper 35cm x 45cm
Artist Statement
Links
Sonia’s practice revolves around creating dream-like visions of inner and outer worlds, with painting.

Through working in landscapes as portals, her aim is to communicate a deeply personal animate and intimate relationship to the natural world. She finds inspiration between the ethereal and the material, and in the elements, symbolism, folklore, art history and the feminine.

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Website - https://www.soniamcnally.co.uk/
Instagram - @soniamcnallyartist

Kathleen Beltran

Artist Statement
I have painted and collaged portraits of many people in my career.  In a series of seniors at a community center, I often made them look a little better than they might seem to others.  In the case here, of my self portrait, I made an intent to be as honest as possible.  I told Cyril, this might be a little conventional.  He laughed and said, “there’s nothing conventional about the neck.” I smile now as I look at it (which, to be honest, is not that often).   
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Acadia Geranium de La Paz

Kathleen Ries

Artist Statement
This is my favorite childhood photo because it shows what I imagine to be my natural state. All the other photos have me in nice clothes, hair combed and styled and in some sort of pose. I decided to take my photo in the mirror with a similar look on my face and with my hair kinda wild. Looks like my hair could have been wilder. Anyway. Was a great experience to connect with my inner wild child and provide some loving attention.  
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Leslie Doucette

Mirror Mirror
Tree Level
She with Her Head in the Mountains - graphite and watercolour on paper 35cm x 50 cm
Artist Statement
Peeling away the dressing, sticky, red, orange, purple. A grid, little squares halved into triangles within larger squares halved into triangles, and so on, countless times over. Tapered edges frayed and raw, to red rash-y skin, to smooth. There was a breast here once, before being removed, top option as cells grow back time and time again, treatment upon treatment. Treatment concludes. Cells continue to grow. Everything becomes so clear, so visible, so transparent . . . just as it disappears.

My process begins with selecting the paper by feeling its texture. It is the physical connection with the paper that unlocks the pathway to color, the definition of the pen and the density of the paint. The shape, pattern, figure and form emerge soon after, as if they had been there all along, waiting to be seen.

Hazel eyes lit with life, my mom’s eyes, this beauty and light is what I see. “These bodies,” she said. An understanding between us. Generations of women speak those words over and over within me, her eyes imprinted on my soul. I live on and exist in that intersecting dimension of body and spirit. As words fail and fall away, drawing and painting releases the meaning of how it feels to exist in a female body. As oppression mutates into repression, tightening its grip over life on an intracellular level, it is the physiological and intuitive nature of women that is the most dangerous to that grip, and the key to its release. This is how I turn mine.

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Marina Mason

Abstract
Medium - Acrylic on canvas, 68cm x 60cm

Artist's Statement - This portrait, Self with Broken Wrist was painted with my left hand, as I had the shock of breaking my right (working) wrist. Feelings of anxiety, and vulnerability at the thought of losing an important part of myself took hold but was then followed by a determination not to be defeated by such a setback. I was surprised to find my left hand did almost as well as the right would have done. As a painter this experience was liberating. I am fortunate that the wrist will eventually heal, but it gave me some insight into how effectively humans are able to adapt. 

Self with Broken Wrist

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Roxanne O'Brien

About the Artist
Materials
Roxanne O'Brien is a chef, food educator, and artist. She retired as chef/instructor at American River College's Culinary Arts Program in Sacramento, California, and now continues in her field as a consultant in menu and recipe development, and food writing.  She has a passion for artisan cheese, worked as a cheesemonger, teaches cheese education classes, and hosts artisan wine and food tastings.   

Roxanne has had a long career as a painter and calligrapher. She has shown nationally and internationally, and Sacramento, California at Michael Himovitz Gallery and Pamela Skinner Gallery. Her 2019 show of abstract watercolors at Pamela Skinner Gallery was a visual diary of her husband's (Richard Simpson) longtime battle with dementia.
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10 x 14 inches. Mixed media with ink, watercolor and acrylic ink. 

Tio Guise

Clear View - Oil on canvas
42cm x 29.7cm
Life Lines - Pen on paper
21cm x 14.5cm
Portrait of Self as the Child
Such Love - Red crayon on paper
29.7cm x 21cm
Artist Statement
Links
Sonia’s practice revolves around creating dream-like visions of inner and outer worlds, with painting.

Through working in landscapes as portals, her aim is to communicate a deeply personal animate and intimate relationship to the natural world.

She finds inspiration between the ethereal and the material, and in the elements, symbolism, folklore, art history and the feminine.

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Website - https://www.soniamcnally.co.uk/
Instagram - @soniamcnallyartist

Acadia Geranium de La Paz

Valerie Elizabeth Mallory

Artist Statement
Valerie Mallory is a bay area resident from Denver Colorado, working on expressive self-portraiture. 
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Yvonne Lewis

Self Portrait

Rage

Abstract
Self Portrait
Materials: Waterbased Oil Paint on canvas

Artist Statement: I found that doing a self-portraits can feel a little exposing. You're not just showing how you look—you're often unintentionally revealing how you see yourself which may be why it was a more difficult piece for me to complete.

Rage
Materials: Acrylic on watercolor paper

Artist Statement: Girls are often discouraged from expressing anger for fear of negative consequences from society. Media often portrays women as being prone to tears and sadness reinforcing the idea that anger is not feminine. But expressing anger can be powerful and a catalyst for personal growth for women when expressed in a healthy way.

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